US lawmaker submits bill in Congress to withdraw from NATO
Photo: A bill on the US withdrawal from NATO has been submitted to Congress (Getty Images)
Republican Thomas Massie, a member of the US House of Representatives, has introduced a bill for the United States to withdraw from NATO.
"NATO is a Cold War relic. The United States should withdraw from NATO and use that money to defend our country, not socialist countries. Today, I introduced HR 6508 to end our NATO membership," the congressman says.
In his bill, Massi stated that NATO was created to counter the Soviet Union, which collapsed more than 30 years ago.
The document says that since then, US participation has cost taxpayers trillions of dollars and continues to carry the risk of drawing the US into foreign wars.
This bill requires US President Donald Trump to officially notify NATO of the withdrawal no later than 30 days after the law comes into force.
The document also states that the original purpose of the bloc during the Cold War no longer serves the national interests of the United States.
The bill also establishes that European NATO members have sufficient economic and military capabilities to ensure their own defense and prevents the use of American taxpayer funds to finance the organization's general budgets.
US threatened to withdraw from many NATO mechanisms
The US is demanding that Europe take on most of NATO's defense capabilities by 2027.
Pentagon officials have told Europeans that Washington is dissatisfied with the steps Europe has taken to strengthen its defense capabilities since Russia's expanded invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
American officials have informed their colleagues that if Europe fails to meet the conditions set by 2027, the US may withdraw from certain NATO defense coordination mechanisms.
At the same time, several European officials have stated that this deadline is unrealistic.
